1834. 



VIEDMA MAGALHAENS — DRAKE. 



321 



his tents some leagues inland, near a spring frequented by the 

 Indians, but their doubtful friendship, the progress of scurvy 

 among his own people, their discontent at such a situation, 

 and other reasons, inclined the Spanish viceroy to withdraw 

 the settlement. This dreary port, difficult of access and in- 

 hospitable even when the stranger is within its entrance, is 

 well known to readers of early voyages as the place where 

 Magalhaens so summarily quelled a serious mutiny, and con- 

 spiracy against his own life, by causing the two principal 

 offenders, captains of ships in the squadron, to be put to 

 death :* and as the scene of the unfortunate Doughtie's mock 

 trial and unjust execution.^- That two such remarkable expe- 

 ditions as those of Magalhaens and Drake should have win- 

 tered at Port San Julian, and that two such tragedies should 

 have occurred there is remarkable. In the plan of that port 

 we now see Execution Island, Isle of True Justice, (in- 

 justice ?) and Tomb Point : the two former being names 

 given by Drake. J One naturally asks how their ships ob- 

 tained water, and the answers occurring to me are, — that they 

 were there in the winter season, when the rain which falls is 

 not soon dried up ; and that they may have dug wells, which 

 we did not think it worth while to do, having no time to spare. 



15th. A French whaler came in over the bar, at high water, 

 without having sounded it, or knowing what depth she would 

 find. The only instance of similar folly I have witnessed was 

 that of a sealing schooner which I met near Port Famine, 

 whose master had taken her through Possession Bay and both 

 Narrows, without knowing that the tide rose and fell there more 

 than six or seven feet, and without a chart of the Strait. 

 When I told this man that the tide rose six or seven fathoms 

 at the First Narrow, he certainly did not believe me. The bar 

 of San Julian is shingle (or gravel), and often altered in 

 form by south-east gales or unusual tides. Under ordinary 

 circumstances the tide rises thirty feet at full moon. 



* 1520. t Drake's Voyage, 1578. 



I And the latter a memento of Lieut. Sholl, of the Beagle, (vol. T.) 

 VOL. IT. Y 



